Criticized, US border police suspend use of mounted officers in Texas

Published on : 09/24/2021 – 05:42

Photos showing border guards on horseback pushing back migrants near Del Rio, Texas have shocked the United States. In response, US border police will temporarily stop using officers on horseback around the small Texas town, authorities said Thursday (September 23).

Homeland Security Minister Alejandro Mayorkas “has told leaders of civil rights organizations that we will no longer use horses in Del Rio,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said .

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Internal Security said this measure was taken “on a temporary basis”.

“We will use other methods as a priority to identify individuals who may be in medical distress,” he said in a statement.

An open investigation

In a photo taken Sunday by a photographer employed by AFP, a border guard on horseback grabs a man by his T-shirt on the American side of the Rio Grande, the natural border between the two countries, near Del Rio. On another, he keeps a group at bay by twisting his reins, in a threatening posture, to force them to turn back towards Mexico.

These pictures, which have been around the world, have been denounced as humiliating treatment of Haitian migrants trying to enter the United States. Some saw migrants there assimilated to cattle, others recalled the mistreatment suffered by African Americans at the hands of mounted police, prison guards or slave owners.

Alejandro Mayorkas assured on Wednesday that these photos did not reflect the identity of the United States, nor the action of the entire border police. An investigation was opened and the officers involved were assigned to administrative tasks.

The US government is facing a new migration crisis after a sudden and massive influx of thousands of people, including many Haitians, who have been massing for several days under a bridge in the small border town, in squalid conditions.

More than 1,400 Haitians arrested at the border have already been repatriated by plane, a decision also criticized because the small Caribbean country is plunged into a political, security and humanitarian crisis.

With AFP